Day 97 – April 22, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

We woke today to a beautiful blue sky, green island and CLEAN AIR as we sailed into Tincomalee, Sri Lanka.  This city in the northeast of the island has been off limits for more than 26 years to anyone but the military as the war with the Tamil Tigers raged across the island.  It is a beautiful area.  The harbor is very large with an inter and an outer harbour.  Since this is the northeast of Sri Lanka where the Tamil Tigers were fighting the government until about two years ago, there have been no cruises ship here in almost 25 years…at least that is what we were told.

The dock was away from the major cargo area and had a long causeway leading to it so they could set up good security.  There was a large navy base near by as well as the fishing boat harbor.  Immigration proceeded very smoothly even though they brought a lot of people on board including at least one family.

We had signed up for the very long, nine hour trip to Polonnaruva, the Medieval City.  Since this area has been off limits to tourists, there were not any buses of guides based in Trincomalee so they brought buses, drivers and guides from Colombo, over four hours away.  Most of the buses they brought were small ones, holding about 18 people but they only loaded 13 in each bus.  The leg room was not as good as the larger buses but the air conditioning worked well.

We left the ship on time at about 7:45pm and we were on the second bus.  The roads in the area are terrible with lots of pot holes, broken payment and just generally very difficult driving.  Our guide was it was because the government did not want the roads improved during the civil war so the “terrorist” could not move fast.  There were police/army lookouts posts every 50-100 feet.  Some of them were still manned but a lot were no longer in use.  We did see a lot of soldiers guarding bridges, intersections and other facilities all with large rifles.

The next thing that impressed us was how clean Sri Lanka is.  Having just been in Chennai, where the port was so bad and the trash on the streets so pervasive, seeing green and no trash was quite obvious.  Even though the homes were what we would probably consider very poor, they were NOT surrounded by trash as we saw in India.  Yes, there was some litter but about the same amount as you would see almost anywhere in the world.

The area we traveled through for the first hour or so was home to a mixture or Hindu, Moslem, Christians and Buddahists with Moslem being the majoring in the area.  The Tamil “terrorists” were mostly Moslem.  Our guide explained there are two kinds of Tamils; the first group came with invaders in the 10^th century and the second group were imported by the British to work on the rubber and tea plantations.   However, we never could really figure out if only one of the “kinds” of Tamils were involved with the Tamil Tigers.

Once we had traveled just over an hour, we reached a good road that cross one of the “water tanks”, which are fresh water reservoirs.  Some of the ancient kings of Sri Lanka had built many of these water tanks to store water for agricultural and domestic use.  These water tanks have been expanded and create quite a large rice growing area.  The irrigation canals are extensive and many of them began centuries ago.

After two hours we reached the small town of Habarana, which is on the main highway from Trincomalee to Colombo.  Here we stopped at a resort which had originally been built in the 1970’s and recently remodeled.  It resort of over more than 27 acres surrounded by three nature reserves.  It is considered an eco-resort planned to be in full harmony with its surroundings.  Our stop was a quick one just to use the restroom facilities since we had at least 2.5 hours before we would have access to a restroom.

Another 45 minute drive took us to Polonnaruwa – The Medieval City.  This is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The site has been a settlement for thousands of years but the significant sites were started around 1055AD when a new King moved the capital to Polonnaruwau.  There a great city was built has lasted until an Indian king conquered Sri Lanka and destroyed the city looting the great temples and causing a lot of destruction to the buildings. 

We were able to see only a small portion of the archeological sits.  We saw several smaller temples on the way to the Quadrangle, the area with some of the most significant monuments.  Even though these buildings are in ruin, they are still considered holy temples and we had to take off our shoes and hats to enter.  Jan took an extra heavy pair of socks to put over her light socks and then just kept her shoes off the entire time of visiting the temple area.  She just carried her shoes from place to place…it was much easier that way and the thick socks protected her feet while walking on the gravel surface.  Fred decided he could see what he wanted to see from outside the temple door and so did not remove his shores.  We actually explore the Quadrangle site separately; Fred walking with his umbrella seeing the sites and finding resting places in the shade: Jan exploring the insides of most of the temples.

The largest of the temples is called The Vatadage (Circular Relic House).  It was a round temple that was the tallest of the buildings (none of them have roofs).  There are four different Buddha statues facing the four cardinal directions.  All of the walls are carved with figures from the Buddha Story.  The other buildings and Buddha statues but none quite as large as those in the Vatadage.

The final stop was the area called Gal Vihara where there are four very large and very magnificent carved images of Buddha.  They have all been carved out of a very large boulder.  One of them is a large recumbant Buddha, meaning to represent the passing of Buddha.  There is a large upright Buddha that was striking not only because of the size but also because of the interesting stripes of color in the granite which gave another level of interest to the carving.   The other two were both sitting, but one was smaller and was inside a cave.  While you could see all of the Buddhas from outside the roped area, Jan removed her shoes and donned her socks one more time.

After visiting these sites, all of which were magnificent and very interesting, we returned to the Cinnamon Lodge where we were to have lunch.  They led us through the reception hall, through the restaurant, along side the pool and onto a path that led down to the lake, or water tank, where they had set up an area for lunch.  There were cows, goats, and chickens along with an ox cart complete with ox…we never could quite figure out why but we guessed they were just for atmosphere.  They had a huge buffet set up with different stations for Sri Lankan curries, western food, such as pasta and chicken, other Sri Lankan delicacies such as chutneys and sambas, i.e. dried rice with different spices used as a condiment to other dishes.  They also had a salad station and soup and desert which was fresh fruit and several Sri Lankan pastries.

The tables were set with white cloths and there were 5 musicians playing Sri Lankan traditional music.  Everything we tried was good and most of it was not spicy hot at all.  We were just finishing our meal, when there was a flash of lighting and a clap of thunder and the skies opened up and it poured!  Of course, we had left our umbrellas in the bus.  So we hurried back to the restaurant/reception area but we did get quite wet on the way.  Amazing, most all of the guests were not upset and took the warm rain in stride. 

Next stop after a short 3 minute drive, was for the elephant ride.  While we were supposed to have had one hour on the elephant, they had already told us it would be cut short – 30 minutes.  However, it turned out we only had about 15-20 minutes.

You had to climb up a steep set of stairs set under the trees.  Then the elephant was led head first under the platform so you could step onto the platform on its back.  You had to set over the bars, then get down and sit with your feet hanging off the platform.  They put four people on each elephant.  Fred decided, wisely it turns out, not to attempt to ride and took Jan’s camera to get a picture of her riding an elephant.  The shots he took were of Jan getting on the elephant and then sitting on the platform on the rear…so all of the shots are of the rear of the elephant.  Jan should have kept her camera as the two elephant guides took the cameras of all the guests and took many pictures. 

Jan’s elephant was a 29 year old male.  The guides let anyone who wanted to ride on the elephants neck do so.  Two of the other ladies did and really enjoyed it.  When they were on the elephant’s neck, it would put its trunk back asking for bananas.  Of course, we had been sold bunches of bananas on our way to ride.  His trunk would get quite insistent in asking for the bananas and he actually blew air at one lady who wasn’t quick enough with the bananas.  Jan decided she would not try and get up, onto the elephant and back down again so she just enjoyed the view.

Unfortunately, they had Jan’s group get off of the elephants before they reached where Fred was standing waiting to get a better picture of Jan on the elephant.  The rain did stop while we road the elephants although Jan did get a wet seat from the water on the platform where she sat.   It was a fun experience!

Then we had the 2 hour drive back to the ship along the same roads.  We were almost back to the ship when we heard a large bang from the rear of our vehicle.   They got out and looked but kept going a short distance going very slowly.  The other buses all passed us and then we came on one of the buses that stopped.  The air bag on the suspension system had blown so they stopped one of the last buses and the two pilot cars and put us all into those to continue the trip to the ship.  We were already a bit late from the excursion so everything was ready to sail except putting up the gangplank. Up we went, up went the gangplank and away we went.

We had a surprise when we got to our suite…we had a reservation at Prime 7 that we didn’t know about.  So rather than spend a quiet evening resting, we had to hurry up, shower and get dressed for dinner.  Fred grumbled a bit but was a good sport and we had a very nice dinner in Prime 7 at the James Bond Table, so called because of how it is situated in the dining room with both persons sitting with their backs to the wall.

We both thought it was a great day and a great excursion even though we had gotten very wet.  We are impressed with Sri Lanka.